After 15 years India crowned the Asian Champions

Ashish Nehra’s four-wicket haul and a fine half-century from Dinesh Karthik set up a massive victory for India over Sri Lanka in the final of the Asia Cup 2010.

After electing to bat first, India got off to a decent start butlost Gambhir early. Virat Kohli came in and stitched up a partnership of 62 runs for the 3rd wicket, the highest of the match. India scored 53/1 from their Quick Start Overs. The middle-order batsmen chipped in with the starts but failed to convert those starts. MS Dhoni scored a well-paced 41 to support Dinesh karthik who went on to score an impressive 66. The Sri Lankan bowlers came back well towards the end of the innings picking up regular wickets as Rohit Sharma was running out of partners again. India scores just 55 runs and lost 2 wickets in the Extreme Performance Overs as Muttiah Muralidaran, Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara strangled the Indian batters. The hero from the last game, Farveez Maharoof, went wicket-less today. The oevrall fielding, in general, was well below-par and they gave away around 15 extra runs in the field while conceding as many as 19 extras as India piled up an impressive 268 from their 50 overs.

Sri Lanka were jolted very early in their chase as they lost Tillakaratne Dilshan to a short delievry. The ball was swinging all around the place leaving the Sri Lankan openers guessing. The seam bowlers bowled good line and length and tested the batters outside the off stump. They scored 42/2 from their Quick Start Overs with both the openers back to the pavilion. However, a bouble-blow from Ashish Nehra in the 14th over, scalping Mahela Jayawardene and Angelo Mathews, turned the match on its head. To add to that, he also scalped Kumar Sangakkara in the 16th over and left the hosts tottering at 51/5. It was just a matter of time then as India completed the formalities as the last recognised pair of Thilina Kandamby and Chamara Kapugedera was at the crease and the latter went on to score a gritty half-century scoring some big hits during the Power Play 3 but not enough to threaten to pull out a win. India bowled out Sri Lanka for 187 in the 44th over to win the final by a big margin of 87 runs. Ashish Nehra was the pick of the bowlers, picking up 4 wickets. aheer Khan and Ravindra Jadeja scalped two wickets each. Chamara Kapugedera was the innings top-scorer scoring 55 runs.  

Dinesh Karthik was named the Man of the Match for his impressive 66 while Shahid Afridi was named the Man of the Series.